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Review: Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard

The Logitech G15 was originally made in 2005. It featured 12 more “G Keys,” which are the programmable hotkeys. It also had a light blue color for the backlit keys and LCD. The revised 2007 version was shipped with only 6 hotkeys, a more compact design, orange lights, and costs about $75 or so. I’ll be reviewing the 2007 version, which is in the picture.

Review

Noise Output:

If you’re not sure what I’m talking about, I mean the sound the keyboard produces when you strike the keys. When I first got my G15, it was very quiet, one of the most quiet keyboards I’ve ever had. But sadly, after a while of using it, it gets loud due to the membrane wearing out. The noise isn’t unbearable, after all it’s still more quiet than older keyboards.

Light Brightness:

This is one of the areas where the G15 really does well. The brightness of the lights from the keyboard is great. Used at night, the lights are bright enough for you to easily see the keyboard and makes the LCD easily visible. But the lights aren’t so bright that they bother your eyes. If the default brightness is too much for you, the G15 has a brightness control with three settings. As you could probably guess, the settings are Off, Low, and High.

G Keys (Hotkeys):

Remember how above I said the G15 ships with only 6 G Keys? Well, it also has 3 “modes.” This makes it so the G15 can still have a total of 18 programmed macros. And the G Keys work phenomenal. You can program them however you want. It may just be easy to use for me, since I’m used to doing Macros is Razor for Ultima Online, but I think anyone who has any interest in using this feature will be able to figure it out pretty easy. You can also setup your keys for different situations. For example, I have some of mine setup for default settings, for general use, then I have some setup that only work while in World of Warcraft. I think I’d rather have the full 18-key version of these though, as they were on the 2005 model.

Key Softness:

Yes, key softness. The keys are plastic like nearly all other keyboards, but that’s not what I’m talking about. Some keyboards tend to hurt peoples’ fingers if they’re tough to push down, or have a hard impact when pressed down. The G15’s keys are nice and soft. Whenever I first used the G15, the softness gave me an odd euphoric feeling, as my previous keyboard was like a $10 piece of junk from Wal-Mart to hold me over after my Saitek Eclipse stopped working.

Final Words:

The Logitech G15 keyboard is an amazing keyboard overall, if you have the money to spend on it. Honestly though, I would suggest buying the Saitek Eclipse II over the G15, if the LCD and Programmable keys aren’t important to you.

4 thoughts on “Review: Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard”

I have both the 2005 and 07 versions of the keyboard. They are both some fat ass pieces of of tech, but the 07 is slightly smaller. I don’t think sacrificing those additional hotkeys is worth losing a few inches, do you?

Well, really it just depends on what you’re doing. If you need all of those keys and need them quick, then no, it’s really not worth it. But for me, since I don’t use them that often, I don’t mind switching the modes (M1, M2, M3 keys above the G Keys). So it really just depends on your needs.

Personally, I’d like to have gotten a 2005 version, solely for the blue keys over the orange ones. Don’t get me wrong, I love orange. in fact, it’s my favorite color. But the lights on my PC case are blue, as are the lights on my headset (Razor Pirahna, review coming before too long).